Job Hiring Up In November

The number of workers hired in November is up, even as the number of jobs fell.

The rate of hires, measured as a percentage of the total number of people employed, rose to 3.2 percent in November, up from 3.1 percent in October and matching the same pace in July, the U.S. Labor Department said in its monthly Jobs Opening and Labor Turnover survey (JOLTS).

“The good news in the JOLTS data is that it is showing the hiring rate is starting to pickup a little bit,” said Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. economist for RBS in Stamford, Connecticut.

“We feel anecdotally … firms are getting pretty close to a point where they are going to need to hire people,” Stanley said. “It is pretty clear that the pace of layoffs is slowing down.”